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Vine & Fig Tree is a tax-exempt non-profit corporation [501(c)(3)] built on an idea. It is not yet a business.
Our goal is to bring about the fulfillment of Micah's "Vine & Fig Tree" prophecy, found below.
Vine & Fig Tree was not created to meet the already-existing demand for products which help fulfill the vision of the Old Testament prophet. There is presently no such demand. Vine & Fig Tree was created to help generate a demand for Vine & Fig Tree products, products which will help the consumer bring about the fulfillment of a prophecy which most Christians currently believe has been postponed, cannot be fulfilled, and should not be worked for. If there are 200 million Americans who will say that "Micah's prophecy is the Word of God," the overwhelming majority of them believe that efforts to bring about its fulfillment in our day are misdirected at best, and sinful at worst. They are more worried about being "Left Behind" in the soon-to-happen "Rapture" than in creating heaven on earth. In 1776, however, Micah's "Vine & Fig Tree" prophecy served as the blueprint for the creation of America: the most prosperous, the most free, and the most admired nation in history.
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Doctors, lawyers, and other professionals are required to take "Continuing Education" classes to remain up-to-date and fully qualified to practice their profession. For each of these professions, "Continuing Education" is a niche industry.
All Americans should be professional Americans. America became the most prosperous and admired nation on earth because it was built on the "Vine & Fig Tree" ideal. Details. America's Founding Fathers recognized the importance of teaching the "Vine & Fig Tree" ideal in public schools. Religious and moral education was an essential foundation of America's long-term success. (details) "If a nation expects to be ignorant and free," Thomas Jefferson once declared, "it expects what never was and never will be."
All Christians should be professional Christians. We all start out as apprentices, but we should have the goal of becoming journeymen and then masters (Ephesians 4:13), mentoring others. Vine & Fig Tree represents an effort to create a demand for and provide "Continuing Christian Education." But this can not remain a niche industry. It must become a society-wide revolution. We hope to develop an extensive line of products to help those who are committed to the Vine & Fig Tree vision keep their pledge and become "the salt of the earth" and "a light to the world," just as America's Founders hoped America would be "a city upon a hill." This product line includes:
In the short-term, the Vine & Fig Tree worldview and agenda will be integrated into homeschool programs and Christian schools. In the long-term, even compulsory government schools will begin promoting the Vine & Fig Tree worldview (until government schools are completely abandoned and replaced with voluntary lifelong education programs). Television news, radio, newsmagazines, and newspapers will begin reporting news in a way that promotes the Vine & Fig Tree worldview and agenda, and encourages belief in and obedience to the Word of God (rather than promoting secularism, autonomy, and rebellion, as these media now do). Popular culture (music, movies, art, sports) will applaud, model, advocate, and sustain the Vine & Fig Tree worldview and agenda, and this will further increase the demand for the Vine & Fig Tree product line.
Our opening campaign is grassroots "guerilla marketing" -- an online petition, encouraging readers to sign "The Vine & Fig Tree Pledge" (below). Those who sign the pledge will then be encouraged to begin a life as a "the salt of the earth" and "a light to the world," by opposing Bush Administration plans to abolish America, working instead to abolish the United States.
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The Vine & Fig Tree Pledge
A. Commitments About Myself
B. Beliefs About the World
C. Encouraging My Commitment
D. Answering the Critics
A. Commitments About Myself
1. I have read Micah 4:1-7 [sidebar -» ]
2. In the next 90 days I will read the rest of the Bible from cover to cover at the same pace and with the same resolve that the average reader dedicates to reading a John Grisham or Harry Potter book.
3. From now on, everything I think, say, or do will help contribute to a world where everyone dwells safely under his own "Vine & Fig Tree."
4. I will learn God's ways and walk in His paths. This learning process will not stop until I am physically and mentally unable to learn any more.
5. I will beat my "swords into plowshares" and from now on leave all vengeance to God.
B. Beliefs About the World
These beliefs will shape my work and my prayers:
1. The Bible is the Word of God
2. The Kingdom of God was established during "the last days" of the Old Covenant.
3. All nations must transfer their sovereignty from their present kings and leaders to the True King, Jesus Christ.
C. Encouraging My Commitment
America became the most prosperous and admired nation on earth because it was built on the "Vine & Fig Tree" ideal. Details.
Most of America's Founding Fathers recognized the importance of the Bible (details), and the teaching of "religion and morality" in public schools was an essential foundation of America. (details)
All of recorded history shows that nations which learn God's Commandments and walk in His paths enjoy liberty and prosperity, while those that reject God's Law in favor of Man's Law descend into totalitarianism and poverty.
D. Answering the Critics
1. Theocracy: "You're trying to impose a Theocracy on everyone else!"
2. Pacifism: "The ethics of Jesus are impractical and unrealistic!"
3. Anarchy: "Your ideas are a threat to 'National Security!'"
4. "Separation of Church and State": "The government must be secular!"
5. The DaVinci Code: "Nobody in the modern world can believe the Bible is the Word of God."
A Survey of Vine & Fig Tree websites is found here.
A Directory of Vine & Fig Tree webpages is found here.
Vine & Fig Tree is currently idea-heavy. We do not yet have a developed product line. We do not yet have a director of marketing or other business advisor. As a first step we are following the advice of master marketer Jay Conrad Levinson.
| The Seven Sentence Marketing Plan by Jay Conrad Levinson A guerrilla marketing strategy needs only seven sentences. It is brief for two important reasons. First, a seven-sentence strategy forces you to focus. Secondly, everyone in your organization can read and understand a simple marketing strategy, putting them on your wavelength. Many marketing strategies put readers to sleep before they ever get to the point. Proctor and Gamble may be the most sophisticated offline marketing company on the planet. Consider that 98 percent of American homes own at least one P&G product. Obviously, they must be doing something right. All their brands are guided by brief, seven-sentence strategies. They may have 50 more pages of documentation, but the focus is winnowed down to seven sentences, only one of them lengthy. Let's say you run a service that teaches people how to operate computers. Assume the name of your company is Computer Tutor. And finally, let's assume that you have the mind and goals of a guerrilla. Here's how a guerrilla marketing strategy would work for you. |
| The seven sentences
1. The first sentence describes your marketing purpose. Keep it simple and be clear. Don't use marketing or computer jargon. "The purpose of Computer Tutor marketing is to book 100 percent of the company's available time for computer education, at the lowest possible cost per hour." |
Vine & Fig Tree's
Seven Sentences
1. The Purpose of Vine & Fig Tree is to bring about the fulfillment of Micah's "Vine & Fig Tree" vision (Micah 4:1-7). |
| 2. The second sentence describes how you'll achieve your purpose, concentrating on your benefits and competitive advantage. Everybody offers benefits. Be certain to emphasize the benefits that nobody else offers. "This will be accomplished by establishing the credentials of the educators, the location of the operation, and the training equipment, along with the promise of free tuition for the first month." | 2. This will be accomplished by helping
people see the reason why God created them, and their purpose for living on earth, and how
living in harmony with God's purpose brings joy, optimism, material and spiritual blessings,
and makes one truly human.
But more important than strictly "individual" benefits, Vine & Fig Tree achieves its purpose by helping people think culturally, or socially, and understand that living in a Vine & Fig Tree society means enjoying liberty, prosperity, and wholeness, while living in a secular society means colorless poverty, bureaucratic regulation, and death in a prison camp. |
| 3. The third sentence describes your target audience. Don't aim at merely one audience when you might have two or three. "Our target market is local small business owners who can benefit from learning to operate a computer; our secondary market is large corporations." | 3. Our target market is the world.
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| 4. The fourth sentence describes the marketing
weapons you'll use. This is where you list your entire arsenal - and where you prove that
you're a guerrilla, because you'll unleash an array of weapons so that you can determine
which one will hit the target. Unless you experiment, you'll never know.
Marketing weapons to be utilized will be a combination of personal letters, email, a website, circulars, brochures, bulletin boards, newspaper classified ads, online ads, Yellow Pages ads, direct mail special offers, advertising specialties, free seminars, speeches to local groups, a column for a local newspaper, sampling, a referral program, telephone training, professional office decor and employee attire, and publicity online, in the local newspaper, on radio talk shows and on television." |
4. Marketing weapons to be utilized will
begin with
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| 5. The fifth sentence describes your niche in the market. The buzzword here is "positioning" and it tells what you stand for. "We will position ourselves as the prime source of one-on-one, guaranteed instruction in the operation of small computers." | 5. We will position ourselves as the
visionary source of re-direction which diverted the world away from secularism, fascism,
socialism, militarism, and the potential annihilation of humanity and oriented the world
towards Micah's Vine & Fig Tree vision. We
will always be perceived as the leader and prime source of educational materials which help
humanity fulfill Micah's Vine & Fig Tree
vision by
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| 6. The sixth sentence tells your identity. "Our identity will be a blend of professionalism, personal attention and warm, human regard for our students and the role of computers in their lives and their businesses." | 6. Our identity will be a blend of professionalism, personal attention and warm, human regard for our students and the pivotal role of the Bible in their homes, their businesses, their culture and their world. |
| 7. The seventh sentence notes your marketing budget as a percent of your projected gross sales. In l999, the average U.S. business invested 4 percent. But guerrillas know what happens to the average U.S. business: It fails within five years. "Ten percent of projected gross sales will be allocated to marketing." | 7. OK then, "Ten percent of projected gross sales will be allocated to marketing." What do I know? |